“When you receive this I shall have gone with
That grim ferryman that poets write of
Into the kingdom of perpetual night.”
These lines, written to a friend, were read at, an inquest at Westminster on November 8th, on James Pattison Kemp, aged fifty-eight, an electrical engineer, formerly well known in the film world, who was found gassed at a boarding house in Richmond Buildings, Dean Street, Soho.
“Pausing for a minute or so on the banks of the Styx,” the letter went on, “I reflect with deep pleasure on the solidity of our friendship for the last thirty-one years.
“You have been a very real and loyal friend. On the other hand, many former friends of twenty years ago have not only kicked away the ladder by which they have climbed, but have quite forgotten the man who sometimes placed it in position for them and helped them to climb.
“There is possibly nothing in the world so cutting as ‘The eyes that chilled me with averted glance,’ and the letter I showed you yesterday is in that category.”
Mr. Ingleby Oddie, the coroner, in recording a verdict of Suicide while of Unsound Mind, said it was a very sad case of a man who had been in comparative affluence and had come down until he had no money. —Daily Mail.
NOTE. —What an indictment this sad ending to a life is, to the insincerity of human friendship. If he had known the friendship of the Lord Jesus Christ he would never have been forsaken in the hour of his despair. The Lord’s promise, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,” would have rung true for him.
One there is above all others,
Oh! how He loves;
His is love beyond a brother’s,
Oh! how He loves;
Earthly friends may fail or leave us,
One day soothe, the next day grieve us,
But this Friend will ne’er deceive us —
Oh! how He loves.
My Reader, have you proved His friendship? If not, do it now. He says to every weary one in the world today: “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” —Matthew 11:2828Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28).